Inspiration

A Spiritual Journey
From Teachers to Transformation
I have spent many decades studying the teachings of exalted seers from a variety of lineages, and serving their living proponents in order to absorb their realizations. I want to offer homage to a few that have revolutionized my inner headspace and taught me how to act from my heartspace.
Our Spiritual Grandfather
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur (2 September 1838 – 23 June 1914), born Kedarnath Datta was a leading philosopher and spiritual reformer of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, who almost single-handedly affected its resurgence in India in the late 19th and early 20th century and was hailed by contemporary scholars as the most influential Gaudiya Vaisnava leader of his time. Along with his son Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, he pioneered the propagation of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in the West and its eventual global spread.
At eighteen, Kedarnath commenced a teaching career in rural areas of Bengal and Orissa and in 1866 became an employee with the British government in the Judicial Service, from which he retired in 1894 as a District Magistrate.
In his youth, Kedarnath spent considerable time researching and comparing various religious and philosophical systems, both Indian and Western. His spiritual quest led him at the age of twenty nine to becoming a follower of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533). He engaged in deep study and committed practice of Chaitanya’s teachings, soon emerging as a reputed leader within the Chaitanya Vaishnava movement in Bengal.
Continued…
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur
Bhaktivinoda edited and published over one hundred books on Vaishnavism, including major theological treatises as Krishna-samhita (1880), Chaitanya-sikshamrita (1886) Jaiva-dharma (1893), and Hari-nama-cintamani (1900). Between 1886 and 1910, he also published a monthly journal in Bengali entitled Sajjana-toshani (“The source of pleasure for devotees”). In 1886, in recognition of his prolific theological, philosophical and literary contributions, the local Gaudiya Vaishnava community conferred upon Kedarnath Datta the honorific title Bhaktivinoda (“the pastime or pleasure of bhakti or devotional service”).
In his later years Bhaktivinoda founded and conducted nama-hatta – a traveling preaching program that spread the teachings of Lord Chaitanya throughout rural and urban Bengal, by means of discourses, printed materials and Bengali songs he had written. Bhaktivinoda opposed numerous distortions of Lord Chaitanya’s original teachings and authoritatively established the true teachings. He also re-discovered the lost site of Chaitanya’s birth in Mayapur near Navadvipa, which he commemorated with a prominent temple.
Bhaktivinoda Thakur pioneered the spread of Chaitanya’s teachings in the West, sending in 1880 copies of his works to Ralph Waldo Emerson in the United States and to Reinhold Rost in Europe. In 1896 another publication of Bhaktivinoda, a book in English entitled Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, His life and Precepts was sent to several academics and libraries in Canada, Britain and Australia.
The revival of Gaudiya Vaisnavism affected by Bhaktivinoda spawned one of India’s most dynamic preaching missions of the early 20th century headed by his son and spiritual heir, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. Of Bhaktisiddhanta’s many disciples who carried on his mission, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (1896–1977) is known throughout the world for introducing Gaudiya Vaishnavism to the West and subsequently around the globe.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura left this world in Calcutta, India in 1914 at age 75.
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Our Spiritual Guide
Sri Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Swami Satyananda Saraswati is a spiritual guide to tens of thousands and the founder of the Bihar School of Yoga tradition.
He was born in 1923. At the age of nineteen he came to live and take sannyasa from his guru Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. There, he tirelessly served in the ashram for over 12 years. Upon leaving, he wandered through India, Afghanistan, Nepal, Burma and Ceylon for the next 8 years, extending his knowledge of spiritual practices. He eventually found his way to Munger, Bihar. In 1963 he founded the International Yoga Fellowship Movement and the Bihar School of Yoga a year later. He traveled around the world for the next twenty years teaching yoga ‘shore to shore and door to door,’ and authored over 80 books on Yoga, Tantra and Spirituality.
In 1988, he retired from active involvement in yoga teaching and handed over all he had created to his disciple Swami Niranjanananda. He went on to live in seclusion in his ashram in Jharkhand, India, where he continued to inspire others to support the local community and improve their quality of life.
In 2009, he bid final farewell and entered into Mahasamadhi at midnight on December 5th.
A Great Indian Saint
Neem Karoli Baba
Baba Neem Karoli Maharaj was a great Indian saint of the Himalayan lineage who left his body in 1973.
Neem Karoli Baba is also known as Neeb Karori Baba, and is called “Maharaj-ji” by His devotees. Maharaj-ji’s teachings were simple and universal. He often said, “Sub Ek” — All is One. He taught the world to “love everyone, serve everyone, remember God, and tell the truth.” Strongly connected to Hanuman, the Hindu God with a monkey form, Maharaj-ji “taught” in a highly personalized, non-traditional way that reflected the deep devotion of the bhakti path of the heart. Known as the “Miracle Baba” throughout north India, He manifested many siddhis (powers), such as being in two places at once or putting devotees in samadhi (state of God consciousness) at the touch of a finger.
Maharaj-ji is best known for the unconditional love He showered on all who came into His presence as well as those who never met him in the body but established a connection with him beyond the physical plane. The answer to every question posed to him was still ‘How do I know?’. He defies description and he does so on purpose.
Guru of International Renown
Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharhshi was a guru of international renown from southern India who taught during the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in 1879 near Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
In the summer of 1896, Ramana went into an altered state of consciousness which had a profound effect on him. He experienced what he understood to be his own death, and later returned to life. During these events, he felt himself to be an eternal entity, existing without reliance on the physical body or material world.
At age 17, Ramana left for Arunachala, a small town in Tamil Nadu, where his world famous center Ramanasramam was to be constructed. He went directly to the central shrine at the temple and addressed the Shiva symbol (linga) stating that he had given up everything and had come to Arunachala in response to the god’s call.
Ramana spent many years living in temples and caves meditating, and pursuing spiritual purification, keeping the disciplines of silence and non-attachment. He died in April 1950, sitting in the lotus position. The final word that passed from his lips was the sacred syllable AUM.
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